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104-618: The corps was formed in April 1943 as a headquarters for the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Wiking" and the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Nordland" . The corps was placed under the control of former Wiking commander SS- Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner . After training, the corps took part in operations against the Yugoslav Partisans . The corps was then sent to a quiet sector in Army Group North , now made up of

208-601: A "vicious and reactionary fascist clique". Field Marshal Mannerheim and Väinö Tanner , the leader of the Finnish Social Democratic Party , were targeted for particular scorn. When Stalin gained absolute power through the Great Purge of 1938, the Soviets changed their foreign policy toward Finland and began to pursue the reconquest of the provinces of Tsarist Russia that had been lost during

312-678: A Soviet plan to annex Finland. Rather, the objective was to gain Finnish territory and to reinforce Soviet influence in the region. Another American historian Stephen Kotkin also shares the position that the Soviet Union did not aim for annexation. He points out the different treatment Finland was given, compared to the Baltics: unlike the pacts of mutual assistance that the Baltics were pressured into, resulting in their total Sovietization,

416-620: A celebratory piece of music from Dmitri Shostakovich , Suite on Finnish Themes , intended to be performed as the marching bands of the Red Army paraded through Helsinki. The Soviets were confident that the Western powers would not come to Finland's aid. Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to the UK, said: "Who would help? The Swedes? The British? The Americans? There's no way in hell. There will be

520-435: A church. Shortly afterwards soldiers from my unit started to pour gasoline onto the church and somewhere between 200 and 300 humans were burned inside [the church]. I was assigned as guard, and no one came out." The 2014 Norwegian book Morfar, Hitler og jeg (Grandfather, Hitler and I) quotes the diary of a division soldier from 1941 to 1943: "and then we cleaned a Jew hole". The organisation structure of this SS formation

624-705: A full Soviet conquest. Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders in temperatures as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). The battles focused mainly on Taipale along the Karelian Isthmus , on Kollaa in Ladoga Karelia and on Raate Road in Kainuu , but there were also battles in Salla and Petsamo in Lapland . Following the initial setbacks,

728-690: A fuss in the press, moral support, moaning and whining. But troops, aircraft, cannons, and machine guns – no." Hungarian historian István Ravasz wrote that the Soviet Central Committee had set out in 1939 that the former borders of the Tsarist Empire were to be restored, including Finland. American political scientist Dan Reiter stated that the Soviets "sought to impose a regime change " and thus "achieve absolute victory". He quoted Molotov, who had commented in November 1939 on

832-607: A gully, where they were shot. On 7–11 April 1945, members of the division executed another eighteen escaped prisoners. In 2013 the NRK quoted "the first Norwegian [to publicly admit] that he participated in war crimes and extermination of Jews in Eastern Europe" during World War II, former soldier of the division Olav Tuff, who admitted: "In one instance in Ukraine during the autumn of 1941, civilians were herded like cattle—into

936-525: A halt and later necessitated a retreat from the Caucasus. After Operation Winter Storm , the failed attempt to relieve the 6th Army, Erich von Manstein , the commander of Army Group South, proposed another attempt towards Stalingrad. To that end, Wiking entrained on 24 December; however, by the time it arrived at Zimovniki on 30 December, the Wehrmacht was retreating westwards. The Wiking Division

1040-510: A loss of prestige after having made them public. However, the Soviet offer was eventually rejected with respect to the opinion of the public and Parliament. At the meeting on 9 November, Paasikivi announced to the attending Stalin and Molotov the Finnish refusal to accept even their reduced demands. The Soviets were visibly surprised. Finnish Foreign Minister Vaino Tanner later wrote that "the eyes of our opposite numbers opened wide". Stalin had asked "You don't even offer Ino?" This would become

1144-404: A maximalist demand, ready to be traded down smaller. The Soviets instead had stressed the minimalist nature of their demands, and were incredulous over Finnish reluctance to agree. Finally, there was also Stalin's unwillingness or inability to accept that any territorial concessions on the part of Finland would have only been possible by a 4/5th majority in the Finnish parliament. He had mocked such

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1248-548: A meeting with military historians that the Soviets had launched the Winter War to "correct mistakes" made in determining the border with Finland after 1917. Opinion on the scale of the initial Soviet invasion decision is divided. The puppet Finnish communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocol is used as proof that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland. On 1 December 1939,

1352-563: A minor presence in national politics and never had more than 14 seats of the 200 in the Finnish Parliament . By the late 1930s, the export-oriented Finnish economy was growing and the nation's extreme political movements had diminished. After Soviet involvement in the Finnish Civil War in 1918, no formal peace treaty was signed. In 1918 and 1919, Finnish volunteers conducted two unsuccessful military incursions across

1456-673: A narrow-front assault right on the Karelian isthmus. Additionally, Shaposhnikov argued for a fuller build-up, extensive fire support and logistical preparations, a rational order of battle and the deployment of the army's best units. Zhdanov's military commander, Kirill Meretskov , reported, "The terrain of coming operations is split by lakes, rivers, swamps, and is almost entirely covered by forests.... The proper use of our forces will be difficult". These doubts were not reflected in Meretskov's troop deployments, and he publicly announced that

1560-622: A number of SS and army officers who shot the Jews as soon as they entered a bomb crater being used as a mass grave. About 50 or 60 Jews were killed in this manner. In addition, historian Eleonore Lappin, from the Institute for the History of Jews in Austria, has documented several cases of war crimes committed by members of Wiking in her work The Death Marches of Hungarian Jews Through Austria in

1664-608: A possible German invasion through Finland. He stated that "the strongest argument" against a Soviet intention of full conquest is that it did not happen in either 1939 or during the Continuation War in 1944 even though Stalin "could have done so with comparative ease". Bradley Lightbody wrote that the "entire Soviet aim had been to make the Soviet border more secure". In 2002, Russian historian A. Chubaryan stated that no documents had been found in Russian archives that support

1768-406: A reason. He claimed that Stalin had little hope for such a deal but would play for time for the ongoing mobilisation. He stated the objective as being to secure Finland from being used as a staging ground by means of regime change. Others argue against the idea of a complete Soviet conquest. American historian William R. Trotter asserted that Stalin's objective was to secure Leningrad's flank from

1872-531: A relief effort codenamed Operation Konrad . As a part of Operation Konrad I, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking was committed to action on 1 January 1945, fighting alongside the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf . Near Tata, the advance columns of the Wiking attacked the 4th Guards Army . The Soviet forces halted the German advance at Bicske , 28 kilometres from Budapest . After the failure of Konrad I, Wiking

1976-470: A relief force had been assembled outside of the pocket, led by Obersturmführer Karl Nicolussi-Leck . This force was built around the 8th Company of Wiking's 5th Panzer regiment, which had just received sixteen new Panther tanks . Fighting through determined Soviet resistance and heavy snow, the relief force broke through to the pocket on 30 March. Now able to be resupplied and receive reinforcements, Gille conducted counterattacks throughout April, culminating in

2080-431: A requirement, proposing that they count his and Molotov's votes, too. On 26 November 1939, an incident was reported near the Soviet village of Mainila , near the border with Finland. A Soviet border guard post had been shelled by an unknown party resulting, according to Soviet reports, in the deaths of four and injuries of nine border guards. Research conducted by several Finnish and Russian historians later concluded that

2184-621: The Battle of Radzymin . The German counterattacks brought the Soviet offensive to a halt and the front line stabilized for the rest of the year. The division remained in the Modlin area, grouped with the 3 SS Totenkopf and the IV SS Panzer Corps . Gille was promoted to the command of the new SS Panzer Corps, and after a brief period with Oberführer Eduard Deisenhofer in command, Standartenführer Johannes Mühlenkamp , commander of

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2288-614: The Courland Peninsula . Transferred to the Oder Front and placed under Steiner's 11th SS Panzer Army , the corps participated in Operation Solstice before being assigned as the reserve corps to the 3rd Panzer Army . 15 June 1944 — Narva Front 16 September 1944 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking ( German : 5. SS-Panzerdivision Wiking ) or SS Division Wiking

2392-731: The East Karelian uprising in Russia in 1921, and Finnish communists in the Soviet Union continued to prepare for revenge and staged a cross-border raid into Finland, the Pork Mutiny , in 1922. In 1932, the Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact was signed between both countries, and it was reaffirmed for ten years in 1934. Foreign trade in Finland was booming, but less than 1% of it was with the Soviet Union. In 1934,

2496-503: The Gulf of Finland along the seaward approaches to Leningrad, but Finland refused. Negotiations continued throughout 1938 without results. The Finnish reception of Soviet entreaties was decidedly cool, as the violent collectivisation and purges in Stalin's Soviet Union resulted in a poor opinion of the country. Most of the Finnish communist elite in the Soviet Union had been executed during

2600-487: The Hanko Peninsula for 30 years and to permit the Soviets to establish a military base there. In exchange, the Soviet Union would cede Repola and Porajärvi from Eastern Karelia (2120 square miles), an area twice the size as that of the territory demanded from Finland (1000 square miles). The Soviet offer divided the Finnish government: Gustaf Mannerheim had argued for an agreement, being pessimistic of

2704-679: The II SS Panzer Corps commanded by Paul Hausser . In the remaining weeks of February, the Corps, including Wiking, engaged Mobile Group Popov, the major Soviet armoured force named after Markian Popov during the Third Battle of Kharkov . As the post-Stalingrad Soviet offensive exhausted itself, Manstein was able to stabilize the front. In 1943, Herbert Gille was appointed to command the division. The SS Regiment Nordland, along with its commander Fritz von Scholz , were removed from

2808-561: The III Panzer Corps , took place 100 kilometres to the south. It started on 20 January and achieved initial tactical success. The quick redeployment of more Red Army troops prevented a German breakthrough, turning the German forces back by 28 January. By the end of January, Wiking and Totenkopf had suffered 8,000 casualties, including 200 officers. On 13 February 1945, the division was ordered west to Lake Balaton , where Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich 's 6th SS Panzer Army

2912-666: The Leningrad Military District Kiril Meretskov initially ran the overall operation against the Finns. The command was passed on 9 December 1939 to the General Staff Supreme Command (later known as Stavka ), directly under Kliment Voroshilov (chairman), Nikolai Kuznetsov , Stalin and Boris Shaposhnikov. On 28 December, when Stalin asked for volunteers to take over military command, Semyon Timoshenko offered himself on

3016-471: The Nordland Division and the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade "Nederland" . By this stage, Wiking had been sent south and came under the control of Army Group South 's 8th Army . Forced back by the 1944 Soviet winter offensive, the corps participated in the Battle for Narva Bridgehead in the summer of 1944. It then retreated with the rest of the army group across Estonia and into

3120-565: The SS-Verfügungs-Division , which was formed mostly from Germans, was transferred to help form the nucleus of a new division in late 1940. In December 1940, the new SS motorised formation was to be designated as SS-Division Germania, but after its formative period, the name was changed, to SS Division Wiking in January 1941. The division was formed around three motorised infantry regiments: Germania, Westland, and Nordland; with

3224-492: The Second Battle of Kharkov a few months later. During the spring of 1942, the division received reinforcements for the coming offensive, including a battalion of Finnish infantry and a battery of StuG III's to replace earlier losses. In early June 1942, Wiking received its panzer battalion, making it among the first SS Divisions to be given its own armored contingent. The panzer battalion had just under sixty tanks, and

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3328-579: The Soviet Union , recognised the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration. Finland achieved full sovereignty in May 1918 after a four-month civil war in which the conservative Whites defeated the socialist Reds with the help of the Imperial German Army , pro-German Jägers , and some Swedish troops, in addition to the expulsion of Bolshevik troops. Finland joined

3432-664: The Spanish Civil War veterans General Pavel Rychagov from the Soviet Air Forces ; the tank expert General Dmitry Pavlov and Stalin's favourite general, Marshal Grigory Kulik , the chief of artillery. The other faction was led by Khalkhin Gol veterans General Georgy Zhukov of the Red Army and General Grigory Kravchenko of the Soviet Air Forces. Under this divided command structure, the lessons of

3536-524: The Treaty of Tartu , confirming the old border between the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland and Imperial Russia proper as the new Finnish–Soviet border. Finland also received Petsamo Province , with its ice-free harbour on the Arctic Ocean. Despite the signing of the treaty, relations between the two countries remained strained. The Finnish government allowed volunteers to cross the border to support

3640-455: The 1st battalion of the Germania regiment and the division's assault gun battery and sent north to help contain the Soviet thrusts. By the 25th of February, this Kampfgruppe was virtually annihilated in defensive battles near Izium against superior Soviet armored forces. Ultimately the front had been stabilized however, and conditions had been set for the devastating Axis counterattack at

3744-484: The Cherkassy Pocket, the division was ordered to the town of Kovel to help contain a Soviet breakthrough. Only a portion of the division's strength, equipped only with small arms, and the division commander Gruppenführer Herbert Gille , made it into Kovel before being surrounded by Soviet forces. A breakout was deemed impractical, as there were over 2,000 German wounded in the city. By the end of March 1944,

3848-557: The Finnish Civil War to the early 1930s was a politically unstable time in Finland because of the continued rivalry between the conservatives and the socialists. The Communist Party of Finland was declared illegal in 1931, and the nationalist Lapua Movement organised anticommunist violence, which culminated in a failed coup attempt in 1932. The successor of the Lapua Movement, the Patriotic People's Movement , had

3952-571: The Finnish campaign would take two weeks at most. Soviet soldiers had even been warned not to cross the border mistakenly into Sweden. Stalin's purges in the 1930s had devastated the officer corps of the Red Army; those purged included three of its five marshals, 220 of its 264 division or higher-level commanders and 36,761 officers of all ranks. Fewer than half of all the officers remained. They were commonly replaced by soldiers who were less competent but more loyal to their superiors. Unit commanders were overseen by political commissars , whose approval

4056-564: The Finnish government, and lead them to believe more concession may be forthcoming. Thus, Paasikivi's idea of reaching some sort of compromise by offering the Soviets the island of Jussarö and the fort of Ino were refused by Helsinki. On 31 October, Molotov publicly announced the Soviet demands to the Supreme Soviet . This surprised the Finns, and lent credibility to Soviet claims that their demands were minimalist and thus unalterable, as it would have been impossible to reduce them without

4160-415: The Finnish prospects in a war against the Soviet Union. But the Finnish government was reticent in reaching an agreement out of mistrust for Stalin: there was a fear of repeated follow-up demands, which would have put the future of Finnish sovereignty in danger. There were also those, such as Foreign Minister Eljas Erkko and Prime Minister Aimo Cajander , and the Finnish intelligence in general, who mistook

4264-593: The Finnish-Soviet border on the Karelian Isthmus be moved westward to a point only 30 km (19 mi) east of Viipuri ( Russian : Vyborg ) and that Finland destroy all existing fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus. Likewise, the delegation demanded the cession of islands in the Gulf of Finland as well as Rybachy Peninsula ( Finnish : Kalastajasaarento ). The Finns would also have to lease

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4368-643: The Great Purge, further tarnishing the Soviets' image in Finland. Meanwhile, Finland was attempting to negotiate a military co-operation plan with Sweden and hoping to jointly defend Åland. The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939. It was publicly a non-aggression treaty , but it included a secret protocol in which Central and Eastern European countries were divided into spheres of influence . Finland fell into

4472-666: The League of Nations in 1920 and sought security guarantees, but Finland's primary goal was co-operation with the Scandinavian countries , mainly Sweden, and it focused on the exchange of information and on defence planning (the joint defence of Åland , for example), rather than on military exercises or on the stockpiling and the deployment of materiel . Nevertheless, Sweden carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy. Finland's military policy included clandestine defence co-operation with Estonia . The period after

4576-582: The Red Army's advance to a standstill in that sector, Wiking was dispatched to Poland on July 13, 1944. In late-August 1944, the division was ordered back to Modlin Fortress on the Vistula River line near Warsaw where it joined the newly formed Army Group Vistula . Fighting alongside the Luftwaffe's "Hermann Göring" Panzer Division and SS Division Totenkopf the division participated in

4680-683: The Russian capital, Saint Petersburg . Eventually Russia conquered and annexed Finland, and converted it into an autonomous buffer state . The resulting Grand Duchy of Finland enjoyed wide autonomy within Russia until the end of the 19th century, when Russia began attempts to assimilate Finland as part of a general policy to strengthen the central government and unify the Empire by Russification . Those attempts were aborted because of Russia's internal strife, but they ruined Russia's relationship with Finland. In addition, support increased in Finland for self-determination movements. World War I led to

4784-817: The SS Divisions Totenkopf and Das Reich, was sent to the Mius- Bogodukhov sector. The Soviets took Kharkiv on 23 August and began advancing towards the Dnieper . In October the division was pulled out to a quiet sector of the line just as the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive overtook Army Group South. In November 1943 the division participated in Operation Harvest Festival , engaging in the mass murder of thousands of Jews at Majdanek concentration camp . In

4888-595: The SS Panzer Regiment 5 Wiking , took command. Battles around Modlin followed for the rest of the year. In October, Mühlenkamp was replaced by Oberführer Karl Ullrich , who led the division for the rest of the war. In late-December 1944, the German forces, including IX SS Mountain Corps , were encircled in Budapest . The IV SS Panzer Corps was ordered south to join Hermann Balck's 6th Army for

4992-445: The Soviet Union also joined the League of Nations. Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin regarded it a disappointment that the Soviet Union could not halt the Finnish Revolution. He thought that the pro-Finland movement in Karelia posed a direct threat to Leningrad and that the area and defences of Finland could be used to invade the Soviet Union or restrict fleet movements. Soviet propaganda then painted Finland's leadership as

5096-422: The Soviet Union formed a puppet government , named the Finnish Democratic Republic , to govern Finland after Soviet conquest. A declaration delivered via TASS stated: The People's Government in its present composition regards itself as a provisional government. Immediately upon arrival in Helsinki, capital of the country, it will be reorganised and its composition enlarged by the inclusion of representatives of

5200-429: The Soviet Union was mostly impassable except along a handful of unpaved roads . In prewar calculations, the Finnish Defence Command , which had established its wartime headquarters at Mikkeli , had estimated seven Soviet divisions on the Karelian Isthmus and no more than five along the whole border north of Lake Ladoga. In the estimation, the manpower ratio would have favoured the attacker by three to one. The true ratio

5304-415: The Soviet Union's "first real war on a massive scale using tanks, artillery, and aircraft" at Khalkin Gol went unheeded. As a result, Russian BT tanks were less successful during the Winter War, and it took the Soviet Union three months and over a million men to accomplish what Zhukov had managed at Khalkhin Gol in ten days (albeit in completely different circumstances). Soviet generals were impressed by

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5408-416: The Soviet border, the Viena and Aunus expeditions , to annex areas in Karelia that according to the Greater Finland ideology would combine all Baltic Finnic peoples into a single state. In 1920, Finnish communists based in Soviet Russia attempted to assassinate the former Finnish White Guard Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim . On 14 October 1920, Finland and Soviet Russia signed

5512-411: The Soviet military. After 15 months of Interim Peace , in June 1941, Germany commenced Operation Barbarossa , and the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviets began. Until the early 19th century, Finland was the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden . From 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809, the Russian Empire waged the Finnish War against the Kingdom of Sweden, ostensibly to protect

5616-474: The Soviet sphere. On 1 September 1939, Germany began its invasion of Poland , and two days later, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. On 17 September, the Soviet invasion of Poland began. After the fall of Poland, Germany and the Soviet Union exchanged occupied Polish lands to establish a new border in accordance with the provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were soon forced to accept treaties that allowed

5720-455: The Soviets demanded limited territorial concessions from Finland, and even offered land in return, which would not have made sense if full Sovietization was intended. And according to Kotkin, Stalin seemed to be genuinely interested in reaching an agreement during the negotiations: he had personally attended six of the seven meetings with the Finns, and had multiple times reduced his demands. However, mutual mistrust and misunderstandings would mar

5824-408: The Soviets did not trust Germany and that war was considered possible between the two countries. The Red Army would not wait passively behind the border but would rather "advance to meet the enemy". Finnish representatives assured Yartsev that Finland was committed to a policy of neutrality and that the country would resist any armed incursion. Yartsev suggested that Finland cede or lease some islands in

5928-408: The Soviets reduced their strategic objectives and put an end to the puppet Finnish communist government in late January 1940, informing the Finnish government that they were willing to negotiate peace. After the Soviet military reorganized and adopted different tactics, they renewed their offensive in February 1940 and overcame the Finnish defences on the Karelian Isthmus. This left the Finnish army in

6032-438: The Soviets to establish military bases on their soil. Estonia accepted the ultimatum by signing the agreement on 28 September. Latvia and Lithuania followed in October. Unlike the three Baltic countries, Finland started a gradual mobilisation under the guise of "additional refresher training ". The Soviets had already started intensive mobilisation near the Finnish border in 1938–39. Assault troops thought to be necessary for

6136-415: The Spring of 1945 . On 28 March 1945, 80 Jews from an evacuation column, although fit for the journey, were shot by three members of Wiking and five military policemen. On 4 April, 20 members of another column that left Graz tried to escape near the town of Eggenfelden , not far from Gratkorn . Troops from the division stationed there apprehended them in the forest near Mt. Eggenfeld, then herded them into

6240-471: The USSR for military purposes. On the next meeting on 23 October, Stalin conceded to lessen his demands: a reduction in the amount of land demanded in Karelia; a reduction of the Hanko garrison from 5000 to 4000 men; and reducing the length of lease from 30 years to whatever date the ongoing (second world) war in Europe would end. However, this sudden change, contrary to previous statements that Soviet demands were minimalist and thus unalterable, had surprised

6344-430: The addition of an artillery regiment. Command of the newly formed division was given to Felix Steiner , the former commander of the Verfügungstruppe SS Regiment Deutschland . After formation, the division was sent to Heuberg in Germany for training; by April 1941, it was ready for combat. The division was ordered east in mid-May, to take part with Army Group South 's advance into Ukraine during Operation Barbarossa ,

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6448-545: The aftermath of the fall of Kiev in late December 1943, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts of the Red Army encircled several German divisions during the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in January 1944. Over 60,000 soldiers, including the Wiking division, were trapped along the Dnieper River. Roughly half of German forces broke out of the encirclement. Similar to other formations in the pocket, Wiking suffered heavy casualties and lost nearly all of its heavy equipment. In early March 1944, while still refitting after its ordeal in

6552-506: The chaos of the October Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War almost two decades earlier. Soviet leaders believed that the old empire's extended borders provided territorial security and wanted Leningrad, only 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border, to enjoy a similar level of security against the rising power of Nazi Germany . In April 1938, NKVD agent Boris Yartsev contacted Finnish Foreign Minister Rudolf Holsti and Finnish Prime Minister Aimo Cajander , stating that

6656-444: The collapse of the Russian Empire during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War . On 15 November 1917, the Bolshevik Russian government declared that national minorities possessed the right of self-determination , including the right to secede and form a separate state, which gave Finland a window of opportunity. On 6 December 1917, the Senate of Finland declared the nation's independence . Soviet Russia , later

6760-406: The condition that he be allowed to implement Shaposhnikov's initial plan of a focused attack on the Karelian Isthmus to break the Mannerheim Line; it was accepted. In January 1940, the Leningrad Military District was reformed and renamed "North-Western Front". The Soviet forces were organised as follows: The Finnish strategy was dictated by geography. The 1,340 km (830 mi) border with

6864-451: The country's international reputation suffered. Their gains exceeded their pre-war demands, and the Soviets received substantial territories along Lake Ladoga and further north. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to believe that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful and confirmed negative Western opinions of

6968-405: The creation of two regiments: the Waffen-SS Regiment Nordland (for Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and a minority of Icelandic volunteers), and the Waffen-SS Regiment Westland (for Dutch and Flemish volunteers). The Nordic formation, originally organised as the Nordische Division (Nr. 5), was to be made up of Nordic volunteers mixed with German Waffen-SS personnel. The SS Infantry Regiment Germania of

7072-451: The demands and the Soviet military build-up as a mere bluff on the part of Stalin, and were thus disinclined to reach an agreement. The Finns made two counteroffers to cede the Terijoki area to the Soviet Union. That would double the distance between Leningrad and the Finnish border but was far less than the Soviets had demanded. The Finns would also cede the islands in the Gulf of Finland, but they would not agree to lease any territory to

7176-510: The division and used as the nucleus for the new SS Division Nordland . The Finnish Volunteer Battalion was also withdrawn and they were replaced by the Estonian Battalion Narwa . In the summer of 1943, the division, along with the 23rd Panzer Division, formed the reserve for Manstein's Army Group in Operation Citadel . Immediately following the German failure in the Battle of Kursk , the Red Army launched two counter-offensives, Operation Kutuzov and Operation Rumyantsev . Wiking, together with

7280-408: The division fought for the bridgehead across the Dnieper River at Dnepropetrovsk . Finally, the division took part in the heavy fighting for Rostov-on-Don before retreating to the Mius River line in November, to hold for the winter. In February 1942, the Soviet winter offensive had established breakthroughs on either side of the transportation hub of Izium . A Kampfgruppe was formed around

7384-401: The division's logistics units led by Obersturmführer Braunnagel and Untersturmführer Kochalty. A gauntlet was then formed by two rows of soldiers. Most of these soldiers were from the Wiking's logistics units, but some were members of the German 1st Mountain Division . The Jews were then forced to run down this path while being struck by rifle butts and bayonets. At the end of this path stood

7488-439: The final meeting: the Soviets stopped responding to further Finnish letters and on 13 November, when the Finnish delegation was recalled from Moscow, no Soviet officials came to see them off. The Finns had left under the expectation that the negotiations would continue. Instead, the Soviet Union ramped up its military preparations. The negotiations had failed, as neither side was willing to substantially reduce their demands, nor

7592-661: The former German officers of the division, to give the Wiking Division the reputation of a pan-European force. In truth, the division was at all times equipped with a vast majority of German personnel. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Heinrich Himmler , the head of the SS , sought to expand the Waffen-SS with foreign military volunteers for the Nazi "crusade against Bolshevism". The enrollment began in April 1940 with

7696-473: The invasion did not begin deployment until October 1939. Operational plans made in September called for the invasion to start in November. On 5 October 1939, the Soviets invited a Finnish delegation to Moscow for negotiations. Juho Kusti Paasikivi , the Finnish envoy to Sweden, was sent to Moscow to represent the Finnish government Furthermore, the negotiations were attended by Stalin in person, signalling

7800-742: The invasion of the Soviet Union. In June 1941, the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS was formed from volunteers from that country. This unit was attached to the SS Regiment Nordland of the division. About 430 Finns who fought in the Winter War served in the SS Division Wiking from the beginning of Barbarossa. In spring 1943, the Finns' two-year contract ended, and the Finnish battalion

7904-537: The main theatre of war near the breaking point, with a retreat seeming inevitable. Consequently, Finnish commander-in-chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim urged a peace deal with the Soviets, while the Finns still retained bargaining power. Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty in which Finland ceded 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and

8008-506: The negotiations, producing an impasse. Before the war, Soviet leadership had expected total victory within a few weeks. The Red Army had just completed the invasion of eastern Poland at a cost of fewer than 4,000 casualties after Germany attacked Poland from the west. Stalin's expectations of a quick Soviet triumph were backed up by politician Andrei Zhdanov and military strategist Kliment Voroshilov , but other generals were more reserved. Red Army Chief of Staff Boris Shaposhnikov advocated

8112-413: The occupation of Finland. However, Joseph Stalin was not pleased with the conservative pace that the operation required and demanded new plans be drawn up. With the new plans, the key deadline for Finland's capitulation was to be Stalin's 60th birthday on 21 December. Convinced of the invasion's forthcoming success, Andrei Zhdanov , chairman of the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union, commissioned

8216-556: The offensive, in the area between Lake Velence - Székesfehérvár . As the operation progressed, the division was engaged in preventing Soviet efforts to outflank the advancing German forces. On 16 March, the Soviets forces counterattacked in overwhelming strength, causing the Germans to be driven back to their starting positions. On 24 March, another Soviet attack threw the IV SS Panzer Corps back towards Vienna ; all contact

8320-554: The operation aimed to capture the city of Grozny , alongside the 13th Panzer Division . After much difficulty, the division captured the Malgobek ridge on 6 October, but the objective of seizing Grozny and opening a road to the Caspian Sea was not achieved. The division took part in the attempt to seize Ordzhonikidze . The Soviet Operation Uranus , the encirclement of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, brought any further advances to

8424-618: The outbreak of World War II , and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization. The Soviets made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons – primarily

8528-506: The outbreak of war, but its reservists were equipped with warm civilian clothing. However, the sparsely-populated highly-agrarian Finland had to draft so many of its working men that the Finnish economy was massively strained because of a lack of workers. An even greater problem than lack of soldiers was the lack of materiel since foreign shipments of anti-tank weapons and aircraft were arriving only in small quantities. The ammunition situation

8632-400: The protection of Leningrad , 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and cite the establishment of the puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact 's secret protocols as evidence of this, while other sources argue against the idea of

8736-411: The regime change plan to a Soviet ambassador that the new government "will not be Soviet, but one of a democratic republic. Nobody is going to set up Soviets over there, but we hope it will be a government we can come to terms with as to ensure the security of Leningrad". According to Russian historian Yuri Kilin , the Soviet terms encompassed the strongest fortified approaches of the Finnish defences for

8840-489: The scattering of Soviet forces around Kovel on 24 April. Through May, the division received replacements for earlier losses, including Panzer IVs , Stug IVs , and Panther tanks . In early June the division was ordered west, to new defensive positions at Maciejow . On 6 July, the Soviet armored advance reached Maciejow. Wiking's tanks and AT guns were well dug-in and camouflaged, and were able to destroy over 300 Soviet armored vehicles in three days of fighting. After bringing

8944-448: The seriousness of the effort. Paasikivi would later recount his surprise over the friendly atmosphere in which the delegation was received, and mentioned the pleasant manners of Stalin towards them. The meetings began on 12 October, with Molotov's offer of a mutual assistance pact, which the Finns immediately refused. To the Finns' surprise, Molotov dropped the offer and instead proposed an exchange of territory. The offer stipulated that

9048-433: The shelling was a false flag operation since there were no artillery units there, and it was carried out from the Soviet side of the border by an NKVD unit with the purpose of providing the Soviets with a casus belli and a pretext to withdraw from the non-aggression pact. Soviet war games held in March 1938 and 1939 had been based on a scenario in which border incidents taking place at the village of Mainila would spark

9152-500: The success of German Blitzkrieg tactics , but they had been tailored to conditions in Central Europe , with its dense well-mapped network of paved roads. Armies fighting there had recognised supply and communications centres, which could be easily targeted by armoured vehicle regiments. Finnish Army centres, in contrast, were deep inside the country. There were no paved roads, and even gravel or dirt roads were scarce. Most of

9256-466: The terrain consisted of trackless forests and swamps. The war correspondent John Langdon-Davies observed the landscape: "Every acre of its surface was created to be the despair of an attacking military force". Waging Blitzkrieg in Finland was a highly-difficult proposition, and according to Trotter, the Red Army failed to meet the level of tactical co-ordination and local initiative that would be required to execute such tactics in Finland. Commander of

9360-400: The various parties and groups participating in the people's front of toilers. Soviet leaflets dropped over Helsinki on the first day of the war stated: "Finnish Comrades! We come to you not as conquerors, but as liberators of the Finnish people from the oppression of the capitalists and the landlords". In 1939, Soviet military leadership had formulated a realistic and comprehensive plan for

9464-415: The war. Molotov claimed that the incident was a Finnish artillery attack. He demanded that Finland apologise for the incident and to move its forces beyond a line 20–25 km (12–16 mi) from the border. Finland denied responsibility for the attack, rejected the demands and called for a joint Finnish–Soviet commission to examine the incident. In turn, the Soviet Union claimed that the Finnish response

9568-430: Was alarming, as stockpiles had cartridges, shells and fuel to last only 19 to 60 days. The ammunition shortage meant the Finns could seldom afford counter-battery or saturation fire . Finnish tank forces were operationally nonexistent. The ammunition situation was alleviated somewhat since Finns were largely armed with Mosin–Nagant rifles dating from the Finnish Civil War, which used the same 7.62×54mmR cartridge that

9672-662: Was an infantry and later an armoured division among the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany . During World War II , the division served on the Eastern Front . It surrendered on 9 May 1945 to the American forces in Austria. The division contained small contingents of foreign volunteers from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, the Netherlands and Belgium. These contingents were elevated in wartime propaganda and postwar mythology, including from

9776-399: Was as follows: Winter War [REDACTED]   Finland [REDACTED]   Soviet Union Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups Finland Iceland Norway The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland . It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after

9880-426: Was either side able to fully trust the other. The Finns were fearful of an encroachment on their sovereignty, while the Soviets were (claiming to be) fearful of a springboard for international enemies in Finland, in close proximity to Leningrad. No promises to the contrary managed to persuade the other. Additionally, both sides had misunderstood the others position: the Finns had assumed that the Soviets had opened up on

9984-473: Was hostile, renounced the non-aggression pact and severed diplomatic relations with Finland on 28 November. In the following years, Soviet historiography described the incident as Finnish provocation. Doubt on the official Soviet version was cast only in the late 1980s, during the policy of glasnost . The issue has continued to divide Russian historiography even after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at

10088-401: Was lost with the neighbouring I SS Panzer Corps, and any resemblance of an organised line of defence was gone. Wiking withdrew into Czechoslovakia. The division surrendered to the American forces near Fürstenfeld , Austria on 9 May. Following the killing of Hilmar Wäckerle , one of the division's high ranking field officers, in the city of Lviv , Jews in the area were rounded up by members of

10192-573: Was made up of two companies of Panzer IIIs and one company of Panzer IVs . The battalion was commanded by veteran SS officer Johannes Mühlenkamp . In the summer of 1942, the unit took part in Army Group South's offensive Case Blue , with orders to capture Rostov and the Maikop oil fields. After capturing both targets, the division came to a halt in the foothills of the Caucasus on 14 August. In late September 1942, Wiking participated in

10296-622: Was moved south of Esztergom , near the Danube bend. The second relief attempt, Operation Konrad II, got under way on 7 January with Wiking advancing south towards Budapest. By 12 January, the SS Panzergrenadier Regiment Westland had reached Pilisszentkereszt , 20 kilometres from Buda. Despite initial successes, the division was unable to exploit its breakthrough and was ordered to pull back and regroup. A third attempt, Operation Konrad III, in cooperation with

10400-424: Was much higher, however, since for example, 12 Soviet divisions were deployed north of Lake Ladoga. Finland had a large force of reservists, which was trained in regular maneuvers, some of which had experience from the recent Finnish Civil War. The soldiers were also almost universally trained in basic survival techniques, such as skiing. The Finnish Army was not able to equip all its soldiers with proper uniforms at

10504-516: Was needed to approve and ratify military decisions, which they evaluated based on their political merits. The dual system further complicated the Soviet chain of command and annulled the independence of commanding officers. After the Soviet success at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol against Japan, on the USSR's eastern border, Soviet High Command had divided into two factions. One side was represented by

10608-457: Was preparing Operation Spring Awakening , an offensive at Lake Balaton. Gille's remained as a support to the 6th SS Panzer Army during the beginning of the operation. Dietrich's army made "good progress" at first, but as they drew near the Danube, the combination of the muddy terrain and strong Soviet resistance ground them to a halt. The division performed a holding operation on the left flank of

10712-529: Was tasked with covering the retreat of Kleist's First Panzer Army back across the Don . Wiking held Simovniki for seven days, covering the retreat of several large German formations, taking high casualties in the process. The division escaped through the Rostov gap and took up a new defensive position at Stalino on 5 February. In early 1943, the division fell back to Ukraine south of Kharkov , recently abandoned by

10816-574: Was withdrawn. During that same timeframe, Regiment Nordland was transferred to help form the core of the new SS Division Nordland . They were replaced by the Estonian Battalion Narwa . The division took part in Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of the Soviet Union, advancing through Galicia , today's Ukraine. In July and August, Wiking participated in the encirclement battles at Uman and Kiev . Later in August,

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